The elevation of Wiehahn Herbst and Ross Cronjé to the Currie Cup bench have forced a reshuffle in the Sharks under 21 side for tomorrow’s game against Boland. Like their senior counterparts, the youngsters will need a good win to get back on track after coming unstuck against Western Province last weekend.

Baby Bok tighthead Julian Redelinghuys comes into the number 3 jersey in place of Herbst, while there’s a switch on the other side of the scrum too. Dale Chadwick, unlucky to miss out on selection for the SA juniors, takes over from Sabs Nhlapo at loosehead, with the big former lock dropping to the bench. Kyle Cooper, Jandré Marais and Anton Bresler complete the tight five, as they did last week.

There’s a further change at blind side flank. Siya Mdaka picked up a mild concussion last week and his place at the side of the scrum goes to former Paul Roos schoolboy Lambert Groenewald. Nic Claasen, who played a lot of rugby for the Sharks XV and Meyer Swanepoel complete the loose trio.

Alex Kock takes over at scrumhalf in an otherwise unchanged backline. The team will again be lead by flyhalf Tian Meyer. New faces on the bench this week are Cameron Dunlop, Faizel de Bruyn and George Tossel. De Bruin is another who came within a whisker of making the SA Under 20 side for the IRB World Championship in Japan. Tossel is a young flyhalf who, at 1.91m and 106kg, makes Frans Steyn look like a dwarf.

I reckon it’s last chance saloon for Nik Blignaut now… he’s been in and around the senior side for 3 years now and had delivered no value.

Comment 3, posted at 16.07.09 12:48:59 by robdylan

“Tossel is a young flyhalf who, at 1.91m and 106kg, makes Frans Steyn look like a dwarf.”….Bliksem, are you sure those numbers and position are correct?

Comment 4, posted at 16.07.09 12:57:31 by Salmonoid

@robdylan (Comment 3) : yeah, i’m glad he is there, we do have a little bit of lock depth, hope he gets a good chance, we need to develop players like him, or we might lose him

Comment 5, posted at 16.07.09 13:00:15 by war1

@Salmonoid (Comment 4) : well, as far as I know they are… trying to get more information, as always

Comment 6, posted at 16.07.09 13:21:25 by robdylan

@war1 (Comment 5) : you mean Marais? Yeah… he has a younger brother in the system as well

Comment 7, posted at 16.07.09 13:22:22 by robdylan

@Salmonoid (Comment 4) : it turns out he is most definitely that size. He is in the squad as a utility back, covering centre and fullback, but he played a fair bit of rugger at flyhalf in the Northern hemisphere earlier this year.

Comment 8, posted at 16.07.09 13:36:25 by robdylan

@robdylan (Comment 8) : in fact, I might be wrong… sounds like he played a fair bit at centre, but did all the goalkicking when with West Park club up in Leeds.

@robdylan (Comment 18) : yeah, i played for an english school not well-known for its rugby, although john smit apparently played a match for us, the story goes that the team were short a player, so go ol smittie helped us out, not sure how true this is, but he is originally from rustenburg, so . .